Rochester
Sydor Move Nearly Complete
 On
Monday, June 25 Boulter Rigging arrived at One Blossom Road, where Stefan
Sydor Optics has operated for forty years, and loaded 150 tons of machinery
onto three flatbed trailers.
A few hours later, the machinery and equipment was in Sydor Optics' new
26,000 square foot facility at 31 Jet View Drive, where the Sydor team
was engaged in reassembling production and office operations. Everyone
except President Jim Sydor that is, who could still be found at One Blossom
Road that day and during the following week, cleaning, scraping floors
in preparation for paint... in general seeming to be nostalgic about the
old building.
May 31st
In fact, Sydor didn't make it over to the new Jetview location for a
look until Friday, July 6th. "I had every confidence that my team
would manage the move-in perfectly without me," Said Sydor. "I
didn't want to enter the new location until the set-up was complete and
machines were running. It was worth the wait."
July 6th
Sydor is expanding from 10,000 to 22,000 square feet, with an additional
4,000 for Sydor Instruments. They break ground on another 12,000 square
feet later this month which will house their laser optics, which moves
into the new facility in November, and to make room for future expansion.
We are hoping to host an RRPC Networking event at the new Sydor facility
after the summer.
Solid State Lighting
Intelligent LED lighting pioneer joins global lighting leader
Here's a flashback: In our December 2005 Newsletter, we reported
from Boston University's "Future of Light" conference and a
segment covering Enabling Technologies for Future Optoelectronic Devices
and Next Generation Solid State Lighting, Illumination and Display
Systems.
Two young CEO's: George Mueller, Founder & Chairman, Color Kinetics
Inc., and Charles Swoboda, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Cree
Corporation made a very entertaining and convincing case for nothing less
than the complete overhaul and dramatic transformation of the the lighting
industry, enabled by low-power, high output LED's.
Mueller, at 35 years of age, had just been named 2005 Ernst & Young
New England Entrepreneur of the Year.
Today: On June 19th, 2007, Color Kinetics announced an agreement
for acquisition by Royal Phillips Electronics for $791 Million. Read more
about this here.
Keep in mind:
- More than80% of all traffic signals are now LED
- 33% of all light bulbs are changed annually
- Lighting consumes 20% of U.S. power demand
"Harnessing Light," the 1998 study by the Commission on Physical
Sciences, Mathematics, and Applications described optics as a critical
enabler for technology that promises to revolutionize the fields of communications,
medicine, energy efficiency, defense, manufacturing, and science.
One of their recommendations: The Department of Energy, the Environmental
Protection Agency, the Electric Power Research Institute, and the National
Electrical Manufacturers Association must coordinate their efforts to
create a single program that will enhance the efficiency and efficacy
of new lighting sources and delivery systems. The goal must be to reduce
U.S. consumption of electricity for lighting by a factor of two over the
next decade, thus saving about $10 billion to $20 billion a year in energy
costs.
While the "coordinated effort" may not have occurred, the
market is responding to this critical demand. Is there an opportunity
in this market for your company?
Regional Optics Cluster Promotion
Look for the Rochester Profile In Your Seatpocket
RRPC and Rochester's Optics Industry figure prominently in USAirways'
In-Flight Magazine this month, in a segment of a profile of Rochester,
New York titled "Through a New Lens."
RRPC members also sponsored a full-page color ad in the Profile piece,
with a link to the Rochester Regional Photonics Cluster's website featuring
the sponsors.
At the unveiling of the July US Airways Issue: l
to r
Rochester Mayor Bob Duffy; Paul Then and Rick Nasca, Corning Tropel; Jim
Sydor taking a break from the big move at Sydor Optics; Paul Tolley, Syntec
Optics; Pat Iulianello, Accucoat; Carsten Morgan, US Airways Magazine;
Christopher Cotton, ASE Optics; Sandy Parker, Rochester Business Alliance;
Maggie Brooks, Monroe County executive.
Events
7th annual WNY Optics Photonics
Golf Tournament
to benefit The Golisano
Children’s  Hospital
at Strong
19 July, 2007
Registration
/ Sponsorship
Frontiers in Optics 2007
16 - 20 September, 2007
San Jose, California
Conference
Photonics West 2008
19 - 24 January, 2008
San Jose, California
Conference
OFC/NFOEC 2008
February 24-28, 2008
San Diego Convention Center
Conference
Optatec 2008
17 - 20 June, 2008
Frankfurt, Germany
Conference
Note:
Although no date has been set, Optipro
assures us that in August they will once again host the "Event in
the Tent."
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Optics Express
Intern Assisting Career and Education Initiative
Please welcome teacher / intern Colleen Lee, who is working with the
RRPC this summer on the business plan for the Optics Express. Colleen
joins us from the Rush Henrietta School District where she is the Ninth
Grade Academy Career and College Seminar Teacher.
Colleen's experience in both the private sector and education, and her
position as a career advocate with young students, make her an ideal candidate
for bridging RRPC companies and University resources with science programs
and teachers at the middle-school / high-school levels.
Colleen will be working with RRPC Executive Director Tom Battley on
market research, financials, and curriculum concepts for the Optics Express.
Please make time to meet with Colleen and Tom when they call. If you have
input that you would like to share, contact Tom at 585-329-4029.
Rochester's Solux Smile
U of R Biomedical Engineering Students Assist Tailored Lighting
Some day when you sneak a peak in the mirror, you may not see the connection
between your color-perfect teeth and a disassembled blow dryer.
“We cannibalized a hair dryer and an electric drill,” said
designer Amber Czajkowski, a senior in biomedical engineering with a concentration
in optics at the University of Rochester. She and her design team recently
took a blow dryer apart for its outer shell. They needed the part to build
an unusual light fixture that switches between natural light and incandescent.
“It looks like a halogen bulb, but the backing is special,”
said Kai Kao, another member of the team.
The "Solux Smile"
The prototype, called the SoLux Smile, resulted from a Rochester corporate-student
partnership. Kevin McGuire, president of Tailored Lighting Inc, located
in Rochester, requested the project. McGuire (University of Rochester
Institute of Optics, Class of '83), is inventor of the natural-daylight
replicating light source SoLux found at the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery,
the Van Gogh Museum, the National Gallery of Art, Wegmans, and color-choosing
displays at Home Depot. He sought to add a light to his line of products,
a light dentists could use to ensure crowns and veneers match tooth color
both in the office and outside in the sun.
McGuire was the senior-design project customer and advisor to the SoLux
Smile R&D team of four: biomedical engineering majors Czajkowski,
Kao, Elizabeth LaLime, and Reggie Sandhu. The team was one of eight in
this year’s senior design class taught by Amy Lerner, associate
professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Other teams developed
devices for surgery, for medical treatments, and for daily task assistance
for children with disabilities.
“We don’t let students come up with a problem, we seek out
people with a problem to solve,” said Lerner. “The course
is set up to be customer driven and students apply to work on a project
as if they are applying for a job. The project-based course helps students
put together pieces of what they’ve learned, to make something that
demonstrates a concept.”
“One of my main criteria for the students was to produce a device
you could hold, turn on and off, and change the lighting conditions, all
with one hand,” said McGuire. “The most difficult mechanical
part was the trigger design. The trigger actuates a filter inside that
switches the light from daylight to incandescent, the two lights required
for color matching.”
Team supervisor Nick Kuzma, assistant professor in biomedical engineering
and imaging sciences, provided some optics coaching. He discussed with
the students implementation of their design, which involved optical fibers
and lenses to focus the light from the SoLux bulb. Packaging the design
required machining of special lens mounts with Paul Osborne in the Department
of Electrical and Computer Engineering.
Osborne, campus mechanical guru, heads a machine shop outfitted with
a cache of inventor tools: machine lathes, soldering equipment, and mills.
And busy chalkboards. “Engineers talk with their fingers,”
he said. “Pencils, chalk, scribbles on the backs of napkins.”
Known for taking idea to prototype, he helped lead the SoLux team to mechanical
solutions.
At first, the approach was to make the device stationary. According
to Lalime, they had the idea that if the light were on a stand, they could
aim it. Originally, the students designed a fiber-optic extension, but
ended up planting the fiber optics inside the shell and creating a removable
cap.
Coming up with the workable hand painted device with its smile-enhanced
SoLux logo (created by Czajkowski) took all semester. According to Sandhu,
who has a concentration in electrical and computer engineering, developing
the 12-volt, 3.9 amp-drawing device required up to 20 or 30 hours a week
on the part of each student, using Mondays as meeting time to catch up
on individual and collective tasks to meet milestones.
The SoLux Smile team won first place in this year’s Forbes Entrepreneurial
Competition, sponsored by the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
“The devil is in the detail,” said McGuire. “Ideas
are cheap, but when it comes to executing them and making them work, it’s
difficult.” McGuire is pleased with the team’s results and
expects to take the light from prototype to market.
Workforce Development
#25-M ADVANCE-NY
Issued on March 7, 2007 by the New York State Department of Labor, #25-M
(snappy title) is DOL money intended to help you train your incumbent
(existing) workforce. A limit of $50,000 per year and a total lifetime
limit of $100,000 per company ($2,000 per course, per employee) makes
this a great opportunity for New York State companies looking to upgrade
the skills of their existing workforce.
Thanks to Scott Lippa for the information. Learn more about the opportunity
here.
Product Announcements
Semrock, Inc., announced the release of its new 56-page full-color 2007-2008
catalog. This catalog presents six product families for
applications ranging from fluorescence instrumentation and microscopy
to Raman spectroscopy and other laser analytical instrumentation, augmented
by a series of helpful technical notes of a tutorial nature. Over 50 new
products and 5 new in-depth Technical Notes were added to the hundreds
of products and many notes from the previous catalog released in January
2007.
Contact RRPC
New York Photonics and the Rochester Regional Photonics
Cluster are active and growing collaborative organizations. Efforts are
under way on joint training events, workforce development, collaborative
advertising opportunities, promoting the commercialization of I.P., and
the development of our website to further facillitate business development.
Join us! There are advantages to working together, and
we are interested in working with you. Send an email to us at membership@rrpc-ny.org.
To subscribe, to unsubscribe, to submit a news item or
upcoming event, to suggest a feature or column, or to offer feedback,
contact Tom Battley,
at 585-329-4029.
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